During a typical installation of overhead stowage bins in the fuselage of a large commercial aircraft, a first shop enters the fuselage, installs tie rods to exposed frames and other support structures of the fuselage, and then leaves the fuselage. Later, a second shop enters the fuselage with the overhead stowage bins, and secures the overhead stowage bins to the tie rods.
It is undesirable for the tie rods to hang freely after installation. Stress is placed on fixed ends of the tie rods. To reduce the stress, free ends of the tie rods may be secured to the support structures via zip ties.
When the second shop installs an overhead stowage bin, the zip ties are cut to let the tie rods hang, the bin is lifted into position, a beam tool is used to set length, orientation and spacing of the tie rods, and then the overhead stowage bin is secured to the free ends of the tie rods. This procedure is performed for each overhead stowage bin. In a large commercial aircraft, this procedure is repeated many times.